My item is damaged, I don't want to return it but I doubt the seller will respond, what should I do?

[rubyrodan]

Hi, recently I bought an item from a eBay seller and it has now arrived, a whole 10 days later, being quite damaged as a result of insufficient packaging on the behalf of the seller.. I'm in a tricky spot as I don't want to necessarily return the item as its quite rare and it could be possible that I could fix it, albeit it would need a lot of work, and I would never find another for the price I got this one.. during the 10 day shipping period, about 5 days in I asked if the item had been dispatched and got nothing back until being notified it had been sent out on the Sunday, a week after I had first bought the item, which makes me think I cannot contact the seller about a partial to full refund as they are unlikely to respond, the only way to get money back with eBay's help seems to be by returning it in which case I should get a full refund but at the cost of losing the item potentially to a skip or a landfill as it is now likely useless to the seller, what should I do? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[**peaseblossom**]

eBay can't enforce partial refunds so you would have to return it for a full refund.   It's always worth contacting the seller and see what they say.   At this stage don't tell them you want to keep it anyway.

[m25jet]

Given that the item has been damaged in transit its overall value has now been reduced, regardless of how rare it is.  Even if you were to repair it, the item would still not be worth as much as it would have been had it not been damaged in the first place.  Having said that, however, the seller should have taken more care to pack it properly so as to avoid the item from becoming damaged in transit.

If you feel inclined to do so you could open an Item Not As Described case against the seller and state in the case details that given the fact that the item was insufficiently packaged and arrived damaged you would like a partial refund as a result.  You should make a point of uploading photographs of the damage to the item so that the seller can see that you're not just making it up, and if you still have it, include photos of the packaging that the item arrived in so as to prove to the seller that the packaging was clearly not up to the job of providing the required level of protection to  prevent the item from becoming damaged in transit.

If the seller responds to you via the case and asks you to return the item for a refund then you could try sending a reply along the lines of "I don't want to return the item - I would just like a partial refund to compensate for the fact that the item became damaged in transit due to being insufficiently packaged for the journey", or however you would prefer to word it.  If, however, the seller refuses to respond to you at all via the case then you could try sending another message along those lines, so that when the time comes to escalate the matter to eBay you can state that you've tried to reason with the seller but he/she has failed to resolve the situation.  Under those circumstances eBay may well issue you with a full refund at the seller's expense and tell you that you don't need to return the item, especially if the seller never supplied you with an eBay Returns Label in the first place with which to return the item.

At the end of the day opening a case does carry a degree of risk that the seller will demand that the item is returned to him/her in exchange for a full refund, but whether you decide to take that risk really depends upon how good you feel your chances are of being able to persuade the seller to issue you with a partial refund as a result of the damage sustained, as opposed to the item being returned to the seller for a total refund, which from the sound of it, isn't what you actually want.

[myriad*seller]

If you open a case, the seller will be forced to pay return postage and give you a full refund

The seller doesn't get to "choose", it's eBay policy and your refund is guaranteed 

Click "More Action" next to the item in your Purchase history to open a case

eBay don't get involved with partial refunds, only full refunds on return of the item (return postage is at sellers expense)

[department28]

I would think the seller would prefer to offer a partial refund, rather than have to cough up for a full refund + return postage. It would be a shame to have to return it, knowing the seller will probably just throw it away. 

So many of these situation could be avoided if sellers would take a bit more time & trouble with the packing, especially with fragile or rare items. It is so disappointing to find an item you particularly want, only to have it arrive damaged for want of a bit of extra packaging.

[rubyrodan]

Thanks all for the help! By some miracle the seller did actually get back to me and does seem willing to co-operate with a partial refund, will update if I actually get it or not, so hopefully I should be ok, they do however seem to stand by their own stance of it being properly packaged despite only using one sheet of a bubble wrap that had no bubbles left and was quite a hard plastic sheet on the inside where the item was, the seller knew it was brittle and said as such however a second item which I bought from them at the same time they added more protection to..? It doesn't make much sense to me at all, but hopefully I can get it figured out, once again thank you all for your help!

[themayatrust]

If you open a NAD case, and the seller insists on return of the item for a full refund and provides a label, if you don't send it the case will time out and you wont get a refund. Just an option if you actually want to keep the item - you just wont get any partial refund.

[rubyrodan]

Well I'm back with an update.. I left some feedback initially under the assumption the seller would not respond, which detailed my experience in depth and told the truth about the matter, maybe my wording was a little harsh in saying 'buyer beware' but long story short, the seller saw this feedback and now will not do a partial refund and wants me to return it for a full one because I left feedback criticising them.. I wrote a paragraph explaining why I left this feedback, the seller also admitted to me that the item was partially damaged before being dispatched but I was never told until yesterday - yet the seller doesn't seem to see this or the inadequate packaging as an issue, with them stating that they thought the packaging was fine - and that I would be willing to change it because they had so far handled the situation well.. nothing back so far as this was a few hours ago so I get the feeling they're just going to ghost me now, not entirely sure what to do as I still don't want to send the item back but the possibility of a partial refund now seems impossible..

[tressygirl]

Think your seller has made their position clear.

Being unhappy with the negative you have left for them , they are not now entertaining any thought of offering a partial refund, and  quoting eBay's rules,  that your only option is to send the item back for a Full refund.

That's your choice now I'm afraid ,  the seller as  explained,  cannot be forced to offer any partial refunds, so it's to keep the item as it is,  or return at the seller' expense for a full refund.

@rubyrodan 

[moldosgifts]

Unfortunately you were a bit trigger happy on sending your feedback, and not waiting till the situation had concluded.

Now the seller has the hump and withdrawn the offer of partial refund, as i would if we are still in negotiation,

Sellers cant respond swiftly all the time life needs living in between.

It can take a day or so to respond.

My mum passed recently i did not look at ebay for days besides putting it on holiday.

So message went unanswered.

[department28]

Yes - with any sort of case or dispute going on, it is best to wait until everything is sorted before leaving feedback.  They might still get back to you about the partial refund, seeing as you have agreed to amend the feedback, but it looks more likely they will just wait & see if you decide to send it back or not.

It seems a bit odd that they admitted the item was partially damaged before they dispatched.

@moldosgifts  sorry for your loss 🙁

[cke786]

First thing always needs to be attempt if have received a damaged item, is contact, if they don't respond within reasonable time, usually 48hrs after sending them a message (Mon-Fri), if they don't respond, open a case, they will not be able to ignore, or eBay will rule in your favour after the case period runs out and refund you. Leaving Negative Feedback before a situation is resolved makes a seller unwilling to entertain doing anything to assist or give partial refunds etc, as annoying as an unresponsive seller is, it's always best to let them dig their own graves by following eBay buyer protection procedure to the end.... after that, definitely leave Negative Feedback if they haven't sorted it out to mutual satisfaction.

[moldosgifts]

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@cke786 wrote:

First thing always needs to be attempt if have received a damaged item, is contact, if they don't respond within reasonable time, usually 48hrs after sending them a message (Mon-Fri), if they don't respond, open a case, they will not be able to ignore, or eBay will rule in your favour after the case period runs out and refund you. Leaving Negative Feedback before a situation is resolved makes a seller unwilling to entertain doing anything to assist or give partial refunds etc, as annoying as an unresponsive seller is, it's always best to let them dig their own graves by following eBay buyer protection procedure to the end.... after that, definitely leave Negative Feedback if they haven't sorted it out to mutual satisfaction.

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I prefer a case opening no matter what but buyer must give a reasonable time before opening for INR Give it a week instead buyer is watching the clock for it to tick past the last day or not even that before leaping on the case.

Life is not a fast food joint give it time.

[rubyrodan]

Thanks all again for the further advice.. at this point I'm just going to take it and not return the item, haven't had anything back about me offering me to change my feedback in 3 days so I'm going to assume nothing is going to come of it and I should just leave it, perhaps I was a little trigger happy with the feedback as has been said, but I would've left it regardless for a variety of reasons.. I can't go back now so I'm just going to look into getting the item fixed
Thanks for all the help, I've really appreciated it!

[m25jet]

@rubyrodan  If the seller sends you a Feedback Revision Request, try replying to the request with something along the lines of "I'll revise the feedback if you issue me with a partial refund of..." stating exactly how much you want by way of a partial refund, and emphasising to the seller that had the item been packaged sufficiently in the first place then the damage would more than likely not have occurred.  If the seller doesn't like it and tells you to get lost then you'll just have to accept that you've ended up with a damaged item and no refund, whether partial or total; however, if the seller is open to the idea of agreeing to refund some of the money that you paid for the item then you may be able to work something out between the two of you.  However, if the seller does come around to the idea then unless he issues a voluntary partial refund - assuming he's still got time to do so - the refund may well have to be issued via a partial transfer back to the account that the money came out of when you paid for the item, rather than via eBay.

In the unlikely event that the seller actually agrees to the idea of issuing a partial refund in exchange for feedback revision, then in that case you would have to make in absolutely clear in all of your messages that the payment relates in no way to an off-eBay transaction, just in case somebody at eBay reads the messages between you and the seller.  If eBay feel that they have even the slightest reason to suspect that you're trying to set up an off-eBay deal then it could end up backfiring on both of you pretty badly.

[department28]

It would probably have been easier to have negotiated a partial refund before eBay started automatically issuing return labels & refunds for INAD cases. Sellers used to be able to respond & discuss the issues. I think that was a better way of doing things.

However, I would've thought the seller would have preferred to offer you a partial refund in exchange for amending your feedback. Hope you can do a successful repair job, if you've decided to keep the item.